Ants
by Unformal Sorrelle
Summary: Set in a possible (vague) Avengers 2- Loki chuckled again, "You mortals and your foolish morals! It's interesting how some if you are so constrained by them while others are made monsters for lack of them. But do not worry, Jane of Midgard, I have no affiliation with that... HYDRA that seems to be making such a mess on your realm."


Ants

_A oneshot_

Disclaiment: I only own what I own, no more, on less

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When Jane slaps him, he isn't surprised. He's been looking forward to it actually. It's swift and strong enough that it actually hurts slightly, something that impresses him.

"What's it for this time?" Loki chuckled, amused at her mortal fury, "Or is it just tradition at this point?"

"It was for Thor. And your general evilness. I can't believe you pretended to be dead just so you can get right back to your evil overlording!"

"Oh, but that was in the past. Aren't you more worried about the future?" Loki smirked as Jane seemed to freeze. Fear was so strong in humanity.

"Are you going to kill me?" She asked, her voice unwavering. She's intelligent for a mortal and Loki is glad she didn't waste any time arguing silly reasons why he couldn't kill her. There are no illusions that Loki has the power.

"I like you, Jane Foster," he is amused as she stiffens further, looking more alarmed at this than the thought of her death, "Why would I kill you? You haven't done anything to me. Our only connection is Thor, and I think that my quarrel with him has raged far too long."

Jane isn't sure how to take this, "But the-"

"I've forgiven Thor. It will take a while for him to forgive me, but it'll happen within the century. I wish to be on speaking terms within the next decade so killing you won't even be beneficial to my goal. You find this surprising Jane Foster but you are actually safe with me."

"Why am I here?"

"Oh, just merely looking after my brother's beloved. I would not want there to be any... accidents."

Jane looked at him for a moment, started to say something but then stopped herself several times. She still seemed weary of him, she was too intelligent to just believe him right off, but she also seemed open to his explanation. Logically, if Loki did want to reconnect with Thor, he couldn't kill her overtly. Jane was not going to dismiss the possibility of further schemes, schemes that could be hazardous to her health in a way that wouldn't paint Loki as the responsible party if he even was telling the truth in some measly capacity, but she also knew that it wasn't useful to argue for the sake of arguing. Loki would do as he pleased and Jane knew that she'd have to step back to have any sort of control over the situation.

"I still don't understand." She said carefully, "But as long as you don't include me in any evil doing then I will try to believe you."

Loki chuckled again, "You mortals and your foolish morals! It's interesting how some if you are so constrained by them while others are made monsters for lack of them. But do not worry, Jane of Midgard, I have no affiliation with that... HYDRA that seems to be making such a mess on your realm."

"Then what are Asgardian morals?"

Loki was intrigued to find Jane was serious with her question. Curiosity was such a telling trait about a person.

"It is a proud warrior culture," Loki told her, without a firm reason. Since his ascension to the throne it was easier to talk about Asgard and he recognized a familiar hunger for knowledge in the mortal. "Asgardians pride themselves on strength, courage, valor- and what they can wreck upon their enemies."

"Is it just about fighting?" Jane inquired, "Most advanced civilizations develop an interest on more abstract ideals once they've gotten out of the tribal stage. I may not know much about aliens but Darcy has ranted about the nessasary politics in-" She cut herself off and backed out of her rambling.

"What else would there be?" Loki was going through his, admittedly small, knowledge of Midgard, "Your nonsensical hypocritical values?"

"Well, for starters, is there still an emphasis on family structure?" Jane floundered. This was not her area of science. Darcy was the social scientist, not her. But she had managed to pick up the basics of culture. She wanted to know so she could maybe understand both Thor and Loki better.

"Protecting them." Loki replied without hesitation.

"From what?" Jane interrupted, still, as ever, wondering how a society that appeared so advanced could still hang on to culture similar to Vikings. "Are you at war all the time?"

"No. Fath- Odin made peace when I was but a babe. War didn't come until... I stirred things up."

"Then what did you guys fight?" Jane wondered, "Thor's mentioned a few instances and-"

"We were a band of foolish youths. Do you really think that if we really wanted a fight that we couldn't find trouble?" Loki raised one of his eyebrows at her.

"How come fighting was so important then? If no one was attacking Asgard, why didn't engineering and science, or well, magic, grow in prominence?Nothing changed in the thousands of years of peace?"

"There is always another war." Loki reminded her,

"But logically-" Jane stopped herself. She didn't know where she was going with that. Was she really going to start debating the logic of the society in which her kidnapper was raised?

"Asgard doesn't believe in logic, Jane Foster, it isn't your earth." Loki interrupted, blandly. "I think that study is wise, that more magic can be explored, and that the secrets of Asgard's long forgotten past should be rediscovered. Do you know that all our great weapons are ancient relics? No one remembers how to make such objects of power. I've heard some say that it would be impossible to recreate some of the feats of old as the universe is not so new anymore, but I believe that the knowledge has only been lost, not made obsolete. However, what I believe is no matter. Asgard will never change it's ignorant ways."

"So there hasn't been any progress?" Jane sounded surprised, "How long has Asgard been in a regression period?"

"Since the beginning of Odin's reign at least, perhaps before. Long before my birth. What of you mortal? Can you claim any progress in the last thousands of years?"

Jane had to check if he was serious. Loki had been to the Earth recently so he should have caught on to the distinct lack of Viking ships. Then again, she had no idea when, or if, Loki had actually visited her world. She assumed he had since he was in Norse mythology but with Loki was it safe to assume anything?

"Thousands? We moved from fire to atomic bombs. Less than a fifty years after we made a vehicle capable of flight, we achieved getting a man to our moon. We've went from landlines to cellphones to I-phones. Humanity never stops moving forward."  
Loki was yet again reminded of ants when it came to mortals. Not only were there many of them who seemed quite squishable, but they still could leave a nasty bite. And as a whole, both species loved to build things.

On a strange thought, Asgard suddenly reminded him of a strange type of Midgardian fish. It was a bizarre creature who would lie dormant during dry spells but regain life as soon as the water rose back up again. The fish could be buried in the dirt for years and still come right back to life when the rains came.

Asgard was always ready for war. War was their water, what they always excelled at, their proper mode of life. They didn't do anything during peace because they were warriors, and just as fish can't swim in air, they couldn't advance without an enemy.

Loki wondered if he was amused or offended by the comparison, but it was such a strange beast he decided to get back to it later.

"Ants have their projects." Loki conceded, but as mockingly as he could. He didn't mention that fish would remain in the mud.

No matter how much Loki agreed with the Midgardian preoccupation with scholarship and logic, he would never admit it to a mere mortal. They were all mere mortals. They'd be dead in less than a century- not even proper pets. But, as much as he pretended and looked down on them, mortals were interesting. The variety astounded him, and he still was surprised that the Midgardians had different cultures and various belief systems. He hadn't been aware of that when he had tried to conquer the realm. Since then he'd looked in occasionally, trying to get glimpses of everything he'd never bothered to check. Asgard, Jotenheim, the Dark Elves- a single ruler and a single way. That was just the way things were. Loki had gotten the mistaken idea that SHIELD, and therefore Nick Fury, was the ruler of the realm. It had taken the sudden collapse of the organization to realize that Midgard had never had a central authority. Like packs of animals, mortals preferred to divide themselves. Yet, somehow, it worked.

Perhaps it was just humanity's relative youth. Loki himself was older than most countries, if not all of them, and he wasn't even that young.

The time span was just... Amazing.

The next thousand years would be intriguing to watch.

"How long do you plan on keeping me prisoner?" Jane asked, not bothering to reproach his condescending conceit. Her face said enough when it had tightened in irritation and her eyes had rolled. Loki was not the type to have an academic conversation with. Not until he could see that humans were equal to the other sentient races of the galaxy.

"You are not my prisoner, Jane Foster, but a guest. A refugee if you will."

"Semantics." Jane hand waved, "How long? I need to know because some of my research is time sensitive-"

"Until the heads of HYDRA are all but severed." Loki gave.

"Except then more would grow back..." Jane could help mentioning, "Although, logically that's just nonsense as you cannot have an infinite number of potential head available, and you would thing that if cutting off heads only made the thing stronger then an intelligent person would stop attacking the necks and try something new. I mean, no one ever says that you can't stab it in the hear or catch it on fire, electrocu-"

"Hush." Loki ordered, finally growing tired of the nonsensical babble. "I believe I shall take my leave now. I hope you find your room pleasant."

Then Loki turned invisible until he was out the door to escape any and all protests. He supposed his brother could have fallen for worse.

But he really hated being ignorant. He was used to being the smartest person in the room. Most knowledgeable.

If HYDRA wasn't taken care of soon, Loki might actually have to learn more about Midgard besides a few assorted TV shows that'd he'd seen.

After all, some of the trailers had looked confusing. They couldn't be all true, could they?

Yes. He would learn more about the ants.

It couldn't hurt.

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**A/N**: And so the CPSFC of 2014 continues! I starting working on this one slightly after I saw Captain America 2, kind of going off of headcannon of Dark World. I personally kind of think that when Loki (as Odin) said he was proud of Thor and stuff he was being genuine, and had officially forgiven Thor. This doesn't magically turn Loki into a firmly "good" guy by any means but... eh. This is set in a possible Avengers 2.

I would be extremely happy to read any and all reviews. They make me happy inside and want to write more. Thank you so much for reading!


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